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Big Time Wrestling returned to the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, site of numerous television tapings and house shows for Jim Crockett Promotions, on Saturday January 22nd for the first time (and advertised as the only time) ever meeting of FTR and the Rock N Roll Express. Earlier in the week RNRX announced on social media that this would be the start of their farewell tour as a team. This whole night was classic pro wrestling in front of an old school crowd of nearly 1,000 people who were loud and into everything.
Scotty Too Hotty defeated Teddy Goodz.
Crowd erupted for Scotty who came out to the Too Cool music. Goodz has excellent presence, great facials and a great physique. He has made several appearances on AEW Dark and Dark: Elevation. Perfect opening match for this crowd, which Scotty won with the worm.
Brock Anderson with Arn Anderson defeated Lodi
Huge pop and show of respect for Arn, as one would imagine. Lodi worked heel for the match and came out with signs stating that the Flock > the Horsemen. Brock has great fundamentals and instincts. They build the match around both men going for their DDT, calling back to Lodi having been mentored by Raven and Brock by Arn. Brock eventually hit his DDT for the win.
Scott Steiner defeated Dirty Joe w/ Mr. TA
TA cut a promo before the match stating that face masks should always be required for Spartanburg regardless of the pandemic status. Joe jumped Steiner before the bell and got some offense in before Steiner took over with a series of suplexes and the Steiner Recliner for the win in a quick bout.
Matt Hardy defeated Danny Miles
Huge pop for Hardy who addressed the crowd briefly and said it was great to be back in the Carolinas. These two worked hard and had a great match. Miles has an MMA background and worked the shoulder throughout the match with a series of armbars and submission attempts. Hardy eventually got free and nailed the Twist of Fate for a hard fought win.
Jerry the King Lawler defeated George South
South is a local institution in the Carolinas and worked the crowd into a frenzy before the match for what felt like ten minutes of insults. Match was billed as Lawler's crown versus South's authentic Steamboat's Gym jacket, gifted to him by Ricky Steamboat decades ago, winner take all. Lawler put over Steamboat on the mic before the bout and stated South wasn't fit to wear Steamboat's jacket. This was classic pro wrestling all the way. South gave the female referee a ton of grief throughout the match, even shoving her toward the go home. At the finish South rolled Lawler up with his feet on the ropes but the ref caught it and made him break Lawler then rolled George up and put his own feet on the ropes. The ref clearly saw it and deliberately counted 3 as payback for George being such a jerk to her the whole match. Crowd ate every bit of this up. South attacked Lawler after the bout and stole his jacket back.
FTR defeated the Rock N Roll Express
This had incredible heat and a big match feel. Everyone knew they were seeing something special. Unbelievable ovation for the Rock N Roll Express. This was FTR's first ever independent match as a team as they specifically asked AEW management to do the match. They went nearly 30 minutes with Morton and Gibson busting out a lot of their classic teamwork. FTR paced the match expertly and again, the atmosphere in the building was electric. Morton, who dropped 16 pounds in preparation for the match, kicked out of FTR's spike piledriver for a huge near fall that everyone thought was the finish. It broke out into a four way at the end with Morton getting a small package on Harwood. Wheeler dove in from the floor and reversed the small package putting Harwood on top and held onto his partner for leverage for the win.
Harwood gave an impassioned speech saying that he is only able to feed his wife and daughter through professional wrestling because of men like the Rock N Roll Express that came before him. Both men were moved by the gesture and Gibson appeared to tear up. All four embraced after the bout.
Attendance neared 1,000 people including WWE superstar Edge, who posted on social media that he had come to see the tag match and visit friends. The event was live streamed on Facebook and VOD is still available for purchase at the home page of Big Time Wrestling.
Big Time Wrestling returns in March for the first advertised independent appearance of the reunited Hardy Boys, with Matt and Jeff teaming together for the first time in 3 years, on March 12 in Webster, MA.
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